Sucking flake hand dryer

ABSTRACT

A device for drying hands by blowing heated air and flakes over the hands in a hand drying shell and drawing the flakes from the hands and shell into a waste flake sack.

e I United States Patent [1 1 [111 3,744,149 Helbling [451 July 10, 1973 [54] SUCKING FLAKE HAND DRYER 3,059,815 10/1962 Parson, Jr. 128/265 3,130,726 4/1964 Rich 128/265 [761 Invent 2:83; f 1/ 3,599,682 8/1971 Altman 222/81 [22] Filed: Mar. 29, 1972 Primary Examinerl(enneth W. Sprague [2U Applf 239074 Assistant Examiner.lames C. Yeung Attorney-Linton & Linton [30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 6, 1971 Switzerland 6733/71 [52] U.S. Cl 34/202, 34/71, 34/95.0 [57] ABSTRACT [51] Int. Cl. F26b 19/00 [58] Field of Search 34/202, 104, 71,

34/79-82, 95.0, DIG. 1; 252/194; 128/265 A device for drymg hands by blowing heated air and 222/31 146 flakes over the hands in a hand drying shell and drawing the flakes from the hands and shell into a waste [56] References Cited flake sack- UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,378,009 4/1968 Peplin 34/202 9 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure SUCKING FLAKE HAND DRYER The invention regards a sucking flake hand dryer with a fresh air filter, a fresh air intake fan, an air heater, a hand drying shell and an air suction ventilator.

Public common towels for hand drying dont give satisfaction to todays hygienic claims. The same can be said about the automatic towel roll dispensers. Throwaway paper towels are comparatively expensive, the utilization factor of their sucking capacity being very bad because they often are wasted or even taken away in heaps for other purposes. Further there are the automatic hot air hand dryers. In order to get hands dryed in less time, water must be shaken off as well as possible and thus is spluttered all around in a very disagreeable manner. All the same the drying time is much too long. Out of technical reasons (inertia of the electric resistance heating in connection with cold housing) these dryers produce not enough hot air when starting, but later the production increases to a focused hot air jet of much too high temperature. This is not only resented as very unpleasant, but meight easily damage or even scorch the skin.

All these disadvantages will be avoided and hands be dryed completely in a few seconds by the new sucking flake hand dryer. It is characterized, that it has a casing for a bar out of absorbent material and a rotary rasp, which makes sucking flakes out of the absorbent material bar, that the rasp is situated in an air duct and after the air heater, that at least one air pipe leads from the rasp into the hand drying shell near its opening, that the hand drying shell is provided with exhaust holes close to the back side and that those holes are connected with an exhaust pipe leading into an interchangeable flake sack in a housing like a vacuum cleaner;

The drawing shows a model type of the invention in a vertical section key plan.

The sucking flake hand dryer has the size of a little standing piece of furniture. A sucking fan 2 takes in fresh air through a filter l and forces the blast of air through an electric air heater 3 in an air duct 4 and over the sucking flake production into a hand drying shell 5.

The filter 1 may also be designed as a bacterial filter.

The air duct 4 contains afterthe air heater 3 a cylindric rotary rasp 6. It reduces an automatically fed bar of absorbent material 7, for instance hygroscopic cellulose fibres or plastic foam, to sucking flakes. .The guide 8 of the absorbent material bar is provided with a feed plate .9 which is advanced by a feed chain 10 or a feed screw. The feed plate 9 may be coupled with an indicating device that shows the length of the absorbent material bar 7.

From the rasp 6 a lower air pipe 11 and an upper air pipe 12 enter the hand drying shell 5 near its operating mouth, so that the hands are dusted with sucking flakes. Close to the back side of the shell 5 there are exhaust holes 13. A sucking fan 14 which is stronger than the fresh air fan 2 draws off the flakes and the air, exhausted by the pipes ll, 12, and causes an additional air intake through the operating mouth into the hand drying shell 5, so that it can be taken for granted that no sucking flakes will leave the apparatus.

From the exhaust holes 13 a draw off air pipe 15 leads into a waste flake sack 16 which is placed in a waste flake sack basket in a casing like a vacuum cleaner. The casing can be taken off from the air pipe 15. After the sucking fan 14 an end filter 18 is incorporated.

By actuating an operating button, the hand dryer is set going, and the sucking fan 2, the air heater 3, the rasp 6 and the exhaust fan 14 are set to work. To avoid a full load start of the flake rasp 6 a delay switch retards the feeding of the absorbent material bar 7 by about 2 seconds. The supply of sucking flakes to the hand drying shell 5 begins but now. The hands held into the shell are dusted with flakes and dryed within about 5 seconds. After this time the flake supply is stopped. A pure current of warm air, containing no sucking flakes, will remove remaining flakes sticking on the skin, assisted by rubbing hands together.

The capacity of the flake sack 16 corresponds to at least the flake volume of one absorbent material bar 7. A door in the housing of the apparatus gives easy access to the flake sack l6 and the feeding of the absorbent material bar for checking and pushing in new bars. The feed plate 9 is pushed down to initial position and a new bar 7 of absorbent material is inserted. The filled flake sack 16 out of porous paperis replaced by an empty one. The hand shell 5 is cleaned from time to time.

I claim: 7

1. A sucking flake hand dryer comprising an air duct, a fresh air filter in said duct, an air heater in said duct,a rotatably driven rasp in said duct,an absorbent material bar, a guide for said bar opening into said duct below said rasp, a hand drying shell having a mouth at one end and exhaust openings at an opposite end, at least one air pipe leading from said rasp to said hand drying shell mouth, an exhaust housing, a waste flake sack in said exhaust housing, an exhaust air pipe connecting said shell openings to said exhaust housing and air suction means in communication with said exhaust housing, and an air intake fan after said first filter.

2. A sucking flake hand dryer as claimed in claim 1 including a feed plate for said bar in said guide and automatic means for advancing said feed plate.

3. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 2 wherein said automatic means includes a motor driven feed chain connected to said plate.

4. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 2 wherein said automatic means includes a motor driven feed screw for said plate.

5. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 2 wherein-an indicating device is coupled to said feed plate to show the remaining length of said absorbent material bar.

6. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 3 wherein a delay switch is coupled to said automatic means motor.

7. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 1 including an air filter positioned after said air suction means.

8. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 1 wherein said bar consists of hygroscopic cellulose fibers.

9. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 1 wherein said bar consists of plastic foam. 

1. A sucking flake hand dryer comprising an air duct, a fresh air filter in said duct, an air heater in said duct,a rotatably driven rasp in said duct,an absorbent material bar, a guide for said bar opening into said duct below said rasp, a hand drying shell having a mouth at one end and exhaust openings at an opposite end, at least one air pipe leading from said rasp to said hand drying shell mouth, an exhaust housing, a waste flake sack in said exhaust housing, an exhaust air pipe connecting said shell openings to said exhaust housing and air suction means in communication with said exhaust housing, and an air intake fan after said first filter.
 2. A sucking flake hand dryer as claimed in claim 1 including a feed plate for said bar in said guide and automatic means for advancing said feed plate.
 3. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 2 wherein said automatic means includes a motor driven feed chain connected to said plate.
 4. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 2 wherein said automatic means includes a motor driven feed screw for said plate.
 5. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 2 wherein an indicating device is coupled to said feed plate to show the remaining length of said absorbent material bar.
 6. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 3 wherein a delay switch is coupled to said automatic means motor.
 7. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 1 including an air filter positioned after said air suction means.
 8. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 1 wherein said bar consists of hygroscopic cellulose fibers.
 9. A sucking flake hand dryer according to claim 1 wherein said bar consists of plastic foam. 